Willie Nelson sings, “All I want is on the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again, the life I love is makin’ music with my friends…” Willie’s famous song is about his life on tour, and if you’re curious as to what that life is like, you can jump onto his famous “Me and Paul” tour bus.Willie Nelson sings, “All I want is on the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again, the life I love is makin’ music with my friends…” Willie’s famous song is about his life on tour, and if you’re curious as to what that life is like, you can jump onto his famous “Me and Paul” tour bus owned by Vintage Innovations.

"The company soon evolved into an air stream rental company with Perkins and a friend building a fleet of air streams to rent out for events. “We started getting calls saying, ‘Hey, do you guys have any of these available for SXSW or this event or that event?’”Then, about two years ago, the Willie Nelson bus came up for auction. “I saw it and a few of my friends, one in particular, my business partner who owns [Vintage Innovations] with me in New York messaged me and said, ‘Dude, you’re the guy for this project. We’ve got to get this thing!’ We kept bidding on this auction and it kept going up and up and up. People from all over the world were bidding on it as far as Uruguay, to Canada, and Europe. I think at the end of the day, the reason we won the auction was because the guy that owned it was selling it here in Texas. He loved the idea of it selling to a Texan and we even ended up having a few mutual friends.”Once Perkins and his partner won the tour bus, they began to restore it. “Me and Paul” is one of the first four original buses built for Willie Nelson and the family band in 1983 by Florida Coach. The renovation process consisted of a series of conversations with people who had been on the bus before in the last 20 years. “When we got the bus, it was worn and interior had gone through various remodels, but a lot of it is still original. Everything is crushed red velvet on the inside and mahogany. We added in a lot of nostalgic things that correspond with the band and Willie and Paul in particular.”Soon after Taylor and his partner purchased “Me and Paul” he found “Calypso,” which was John Denver’s original tour bus. “We wanted to be able to expand our bandwidth and ‘Calypso’ is such a cool bus too.” The third bus that Perkins bought was the last Silver Eagle bus to be built at the Brownsville, Texas plant, so they call it the “Last Texas Eagle.” “We actually use that bus to tour up and coming musicians now. There’s a handful of them that are using it regularly out of Nashville. We try to help any artists in the transportation arm of their touring by being competitive in pricing and creating an experience for them that will hopefully lead down the road to a long term relationship with them.”The infamous Willie Nelson bus has had its fair share of fame as well. The Nelson family borrows it for various charitable functions. It has also served as a Green Room for “Drake” and “Florence and the Machine” at the Austin City Limits festival in 2015. “It’s been used state wide for all types of Austinite’s that have wanted to use it for various things. As everyone knows, Willie Nelson has been elevated to a demigod in so many ways. People are able to step onto the bus and share an intimate moment with him, even though he’s not there in that capacity and it’s the spirit of him. They get an opportunity to really enjoy it and that in of itself has made the whole project worthwhile.”“Me and Paul” has also made its debut in Rolling Stone magazine three times and has appeared on HGTV. “Rolling Stone did the initial interview when we purchased the bus. Then they did a follow up interview where they actually put the HGTV interview on their website. Then we had a third one for us being rated one of the top 50 things that Rolling Stone found during SXSW last year. We took a fleet of photographers and journalists from Rolling Stone and other various magazines out to Luck, Texas to Willie Nelson’s ranch on the bus and programmed the whole experience for them. It was a lot of fun.” In 2015, the Austin Chronicle voted Vintage Innovations as The Best Moveable Beasts. “They kind of created a category for us and we were very fortunate to win that.”The famous Willie Nelson Florida Coach has raised over $50,000 dollars for various charities. Perkins explains, “Vintage Innovations has a very diverse and fun group of partners. Every single one of them has an interest in various charities that they support.” Austin Pets Alive used the large Vintage Innovations entertainment space in February for their No Kill anniversary party. “We took the Willie bus to Gilley’s in Dallas for a charity event and actually met up with a few of the other Willie buses that are out on the road. We collaborated there to have everyone show up and raise money for a good cause.”With all of the large buses that Vintage Innovations owns means Perkins and his partners need a large space to store their unique buses. Perkins came across a 12,000 square foot warehouse owned by his friends from Four Star Development. “We call it Innovation Station since we’re Vintage Innovations and it’s proximity to the railroad tracks and it’s correlation to our program.” After he moved the buses into the warehouse, Perkins wanted to do more with the space. “I just recognized that there wasn’t really an industrial space like this that I could freely let people come and use for charity events and for graffiti artists to have a gallery that doesn’t get painted over every two days. We’ve kind of turned it into a living gallery for graffiti/street art and in essence it’s become a unique industrial event space in West Austin.”So what does Willie Nelson think of the bus? “As far as I know he thinks the program is fun. His granddaughter actually works for us and is our tour manager. I think we’ve been around long enough for the Nelsons to feel like we’re doing this for the right reasons. We want people to take it to Willie’s shows and use it for charity events. We’re very conscientious of using it for charities that the Nelson family also supports. It’s been something they’ve all engaged with. Nelson, Paul English, a lot of the crew, Willie’s harmonica player, and friends of Willie’s have all been on the bus.”“Hungry every minute of the day…” sings Willie. With that appetite and Austin’s growing restaurant scene, there’s plenty of places to grab a bite to eat. Perkins started Austin Restaurant Week 10 years ago. “We shut it down last year and decided to figure out how we’re going to re-program it and see how people are eating, where they’re eating, what they’re doing and how they’re interacting with these restaurants. We’re re-launching it this year. It benefits Meals on Wheels and More and I think they do an incredible job of connecting with the community and creating sustainable programs for homebound individuals that don’t have the means to go elsewhere. $2 dollars from every meal that people go out and eat during Restaurant Week goes directly to Meals on Wheels and More, which is a little under the cost of one meal. If you go out and eat a meal during Restaurant Week, you’re creating a meal for someone in need. We are targeting April right now.”So if you just can’t wait to get on the road again, visit Vintage Innovations and take a ride on Willie’s bus! To learn more about Vintage Innovations or our partner company ninjabuses.com, visit: VintageInnovations.net, or www.ninjabuses.comPhotography by John Pesina